New Delhi: Health ministers from 11 Southeast Asian countries are in favour of banning all advertisements “glorifying” alcohol and tobacco consumption.

Saarc nations participated in the two-day conference sponsored by the World Health Organisation along with Thailand, Indonesia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Myanmar. The participating countries represent a large proportion of the world’s population and account for 40 per cent of the world’s diseases.

peaking at the end of the conference, Union health minister Sushma Swaraj said: “After tobacco, alcohol is the second-most injurious substance and we have recommended that the WHO should lay down an action plan for addressing issues related to alcohol abuse. There should be a delay in initiating the youth into alcohol,” she added.

At present, the ban proposal is only a recommendation and it has been left to the working groups to decide how to implement them.

India, Italy join hands on films

New Delhi: An agreement on co-production and distribution of films is likely to be signed between India and Italy soon, Union information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Tuesday.

Prasad, who returned from the Venice Film Festival last week, said an in-principle arrangement had been reached. The formalities are likely to be completed during a possible visit by the Italian Prime Minister to India in November.

The minister said the response to Indian cinema has been enthusiastic and European film companies had shown an interest into entering into commercial arrangements with the film industry here.

The fear of Hollywood swamping European film markets, the Indian film industry’s experiments with new content and an increasingly aggressive promotional drives were enthusing foreign film buyers.

NRI credit card fraud in jail

London (AP): An Indian-origin computer expert who ran Britain’s biggest credit card fraud was sentenced on Tuesday to nine years in jail.

Sunil Mahtani, 26, from Watford, north of London, used fake credit cards to bilk banks of more than £2 million, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud between April 29, 1998 and September 12, 2001.

His accomplices, Shahajan Miah and Shaidal Rahim, both 26 and from London, pleaded guilty and were jailed for four years.

Kanishka trial

Vancouver(PTI): The Kanishka trial has resumed with prosecutors trying to outline the plot by Sikh extremists to blow up the Air-India aircraft that crashed off the Irish coast in June 1985. Two factors — the belief to establish the independent state of Khalistan and the urge to exact revenge against the Indian government for a raid on the Golden Temple in 1984 — will establish the motive for the bombings.

38 in riot net

Akola(PTI): At least 38 people of two groups were arrested on Monday for rioting in which 11 people were injured, two of them seriously. Two groups of Warkhed-Waghjali in the district — Baudhha and Beldar — clashed on September 7 following a gram panchayat byelection, police said here on Tuesday.

Ragging expulsions

Pune (PTI): Twenty-six students of Indian Law Society’s law college were expelled from the institution on Tuesday on the charge of ragging. Police action is being taken against them, college authorities said. Of the 26 students, 16 are being expelled from the college for one year and 10 for four years. The decision to expel them was taken following a recommendation by a one-man inquiry committee headed by Justice R. Jahagirdar.

Blow to Siticable

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set aside an interim order of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission, which had directed STAR, Sony and ESPN channels to transmit their satellite signal to Siticable. The division bench, however, asked the channels to provide signals on the terrestrial mode and not on Headends-in-the-sky mode to which Siticable has switched.

Laxmanrao Deshpande has presented the 2500th show of solo play Varhad Nighale London La. Portraying as many as 52 characters in the play, he got an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for staging the largest number of shows of a solo play.